Not a Fairytale
by thamockingjayandpeeta
Summary: A missing scene from Catching Fire, when Effie finds out Cinna was killed.


"I told you. Got damn it, I told you two it was a bad idea," screeched Effie, her voice thick with sobs.

"Get out. Get _out_!" Haymitch screamed at the Avoxes, and they scattered out, looking highly offended. Haymitch slammed the door behind them and turned to the woman weeping in front of him.

"I know you're upset, Princess," he said, and quite frankly, he was too, but they couldn't fall apart. "Cinna was grown, and he knew what he was doing. He understood the risk."

"But—"

"There is no 'but,' Effie." Haymitch walked up to her. "It was the right move."

"How is the right move when he's _dead_?" She sunk to the floor, her body shaking with sobs. "Cinna's dead."

Haymitch followed her move and found himself on the floor, pulling her into him. "It's okay," he whispered.

"No it's not," she argued, clutching him.

And she was right. It wasn't all right. They had just lost a good man, and important man. Haymitch knew that Cinna and Effie were close. She wore his fashion too, and had clothes designed specifically for her.

"No, it's not okay, you're right. But good'll come out of it."

"What good?"

"A few months ago I thought you'd only be crying because you wouldn't be able to wear his latest designs," I told her. She stopped crying and looked at me. "Now I know beyond the heels, birds net, and cake on your face there's a real human being in there."

She sniffed and screwed up her face.

"Was that—was that supposed to make me _feel_ better?"

"I thought—"

"No. Don't think. Next time you want to comfort me, don't think."

"At least you stopped crying," Haymitch pointed out.

He stood up and helped her, and she got shakily to her feet.

"I look a mess, I'm sure," she said, and Haymitch grabbed the nearest thing he cold find—a blanket he'd used last night while watching the Games in the living room—and started wiping her face, until it was all gone: the powder, the eye shadow, the lipstick. Even the eyelashes. Then he tugged at her wig, reached behind her and pulled out her pins to allow her natural sunny blonde hair to fall to her shoulders.

"No, Princess. You don't look a mess at all."

"_You_ wouldn't think so," she told him crossly. "You like me like this. Probably because no other man will touch me like this."

"No man better not ever touch you, like this or otherwise."

The jealousy in his voice startled even him.

Tears filled her eyes. "Promise me you'll survive this, Haymitch. You, and Peeta, and Katniss. I can't—" she started gasping for breath—"The thought of losing you… or them." She shook her head as tears spilled from her eyes. "Promise me you'll survive."

"I'll stay alive, just like you will. If it's too much for you, Effie, just let me know."

She backed away from him. "I'm not a coward, Haymitch Abernathy."

"I'm not saying you are. I know you aren't."

"You still don't want me in this Rebellion, do you?"

"Guilty," Haymitch said, "but not for why you think. At first I didn't want you because I wasn't sure we could trust you. But now?" He stepped up to her and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Now I'm scared that something'll happen to you. Katniss and Peeta are already two people I have to worry about. I never thought I'd have to add you to list. I've lost so much already. If I lost one of you…."

He stopped, thinking of her, his first girl, and had to change his thoughts immediately, before he found the nearest bottle of alcohol and forgot everything and everyone.

"Cinna's gonna be one of many, Princess. But I can't lose you anymore than you can lose me."

She sighed and kissed him. "When did this _happen_ to us? A couple of years ago I wanted to bash you over the head with one of your bottles of alcohol."

"That's not very nice," Haymich said.

"Don't act like you didn't wish I'd trip and break my neck in my stilettosa a couple of years ago."

He grinned. "Guilty again."

This time he leaned down and kissed her. "We'll get through this war, Effie, I promise."

True to his word, they had lost a lot more people, but they had to survive.

It took them years to heal, but when it was all said and done, Effie let go of the Capitol, and Haymitch let go of the bottle.

They didn't live happily ever after, as nightmares plagued them night after night, but they lived, damn it, and that had to be enough.

Real life wasn't a fairytale, but when he held Effie next to him, when he gripped her at night instead of his knife, he had no problem calling her Princess, and meaning it with all his heart and soul.


End file.
